John BairdLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of the Environment

Mr. Speaker, our government, and I think all Canadians, are incredibly pleased that Aung San Suu Kyi has finally been released from house arrest in Burma. Canada has taken very strong sanctions against this repressive regime.

The leader of the NDP has been a good advocate on this file and the government is certainly pleased to continue to work with him on this important issue.

Mr. Speaker, on another topic, Ambassador Crosbie is well respected and his assessment of Hamid Karzai's Afghan government is no doubt based on fact. The Prime Minister himself confirmed that Afghanistan does not deserve a penny because it is so corrupt.

If this is what the Prime Minister truly believes and if the Canadian ambassador agrees, then can the Conservatives explain why they think it is a good idea to provide such a corrupt government with an army of 300,000 soldiers?

Mr. Speaker, our ambassadors and high commissioners are sent abroad to represent the interests of the Canadian government. The Government of Canada will continue to express its concerns about governance in Afghanistan. I was with the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defence when the Prime Minister raised this issue with President Karzai a few weeks ago in Lisbon. Our ultimate goal is to leave Afghanistan to the Afghans, as a safer, more secure country that provides refuge to those who want peace.

Mr. Speaker, the ambassador is just telling the truth about the Karzai administration. Hamid Karzai's administration is corrupt. His brother, Kandahar governor Ahmed Wali Karzai, is even worse. He is now implicated in drug trafficking and after being bribed, he freed top Taliban fighters.

Ambassador Crosbie urged Canada to oppose Karzai's attempts to take control of the electoral law and stop the power grab. Why are the Conservatives training 300,000 soldiers for these guys? I do not get it.

Mr. Speaker, first let me point out that the governor of Kandahar is Governor Wesa. He is a Canadian and he is not the brother-in-law or the stepbrother of President Karzai.

Both the Government of Afghanistan and the Government of Canada agree that corruption is one of the major challenges facing Afghanistan. Our government raises concerns regarding issues of democracy, human rights, as well as the rule of law directly with the Afghan authorities and we expect our ambassadors to do exactly that.

Mr. Speaker, in 1982 Canada enacted the Constitution Act, 1982, whose centrepiece is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which has had a transformative effect on the protection of the rule of law and on the protection of our rights. Yet the member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke has referred to it as “this deeply flawed Trudeau Charter of Rights”.

I would like to ask the Minister of Justice, whose responsibility includes the protection of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, whether the member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke is speaking for the minister and for the government.

Mr. Speaker, no group of individuals has more respect for human rights in our country than the Conservative Party. That commitment goes right back to John Diefenbaker's Bill of Rights and beyond that. We are very proud of our record.

Mr. Speaker, since the minister has not answered the first question, maybe he will answer the second.

I regret to note that Julian Fantino has spoken of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which governs this Parliament and which protects the rights and freedoms of all Canadians, as giving “great advantage to criminals”. The charter not only protects all of our legal rights; it protects also freedom of religion, expression, equality rights, aboriginal rights and minority language rights.

I would like to ask the Minister of Justice, whose responsibility is the protection of all rights for all Canadians, whether he agrees with these deeply flawed views of the charter.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I had better inform the individual that the byelection is over and Mr. Fantino has won and he is certainly going to be welcomed into the House. There is no group of individuals over the course of Canadian history that has had a better record for standing up for human rights than the Conservative Party of Canada and its predecessors. I am very proud to be part of that tradition.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's mentor and former chief of staff, Tom Flanagan, made headlines around the world when he called for the targeted assassination of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. In England, The Guardian newspaper says that the Canadian Prime Minister's senior adviser has issued a fatwa against Mr. Assange. Netherlands' De Telegraaf is reporting the same.

Will the Prime Minister denounce the remarks of his mentor and clearly state that the Government of Canada does not, in fact, favour the covert assassination of anyone whatsoever?

John BairdLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of the Environment

Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday in response to the question that was directed to me by the New Democratic Party, this individual is no longer an adviser to the Prime Minister and has not been for some time. I would not share the view, and I disagree with him. That would be the view of the government.

Mr. Speaker, Tom Flanagan was not the only adviser to the Prime Minister to call for the assassination of Mr. Assange.

Ezra Levant, the Prime Minister's war room director in the last election, the man who gave up the party nomination in Calgary Southwest for the Prime Minister, and the communications director for the Canadian Alliance, questioned in an op-ed, “Why is Assange still alive” and why has President Obama not ordered a hit on him yet.

Why will the Prime Minister not rise in his place right now and denounce these outrageous statements by two of his closest political advisers?

Mr. Speaker, the agreement covering the ad hoc committee of parliamentarians reviewing the Afghan detainee documents states that committee members are to have access to all of the documents outlined in the order passed by the House of Commons on December 10, 2009.

Given the recent allegations concerning the elite commando unit, will the Minister of Justice promise to hand over the documents on that unit to the ad hoc committee as a priority?

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his question and his co-operation in this area. There is a process that has been agreed to, by which documents are to be made available, and certainly within that agreement the committee members are entitled to prioritize which documents they want to see.